These vintage photos will take you back to a time when Pac-Man and Donkey Kong were the absolute pinnacle of gaming technology.
Maybe you can predict the moves of those shifty Pac-Man ghosts, smell the metallic odor of the tokens, or hear the symphony of sound effects ringing in your ears. But even if you rarely set foot inside an arcade yourself, you can still appreciate the cool, neon-flashing, vintage arcade aesthetic. (Let’s face it, the carpeting was always epic.)
Whether you grew up playing pinball and video games at the arcade or you just enjoy looking at some of the most popular hangout spots of years past, these photos will definitely hit that retro-gaming sweet spot.
A well-dressed man plays pinball in a London amusement arcade. Circa 1966-67. Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images The Italian band I Camaleonti plays pinball in a café in Milan, Italy. Circa 1970. Rino Petrosino/Mondadori via Getty Images Pinball players in a café in Paris, France.Dominique BERRETTY/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Famed director Steven Spielberg poses with his Maneater arcade game at his Universal Studios office in Los Angeles, California. 1975.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Outside a popular Time-Out arcade. Circa 1970s. PenguinPete/Imgur A teenage girl plays a game of pinball at the International Pinball Tournament. Circa 1978. Ted Streshinsky/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images A promotional photo for the Playboy pinball machine. 1978. pincityzurich/Instagram BBC Radio 1 presenter Dave Lee Travis helps a girl named Mandy Strong carry a Space Invaders arcade machine she won at a charity concert in London. November 1979. Graham Turner/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images The Video Battle Centre, a video arcade in the Soho area of London. Circa 1979. Estate Of Keith Morris/Redferns/Getty Images A punk and a pinball machine. 1980. Vinnie Zuffante/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Boston police officers carry a confiscated illegal electronic pinball gambling machine out of Jimmy's Lounge in the Dorchester neighborhood. 1980. Bill Curtis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images The Atari International Asteroids Tournament in San Francisco. 1981. Ira Nowinski/Stanford Libraries When you were small, sometimes you needed a little help to play your favorite arcade game.pincityzurich/Instagram A boy named Dan Neslader plays an arcade game as his friends look on. 1981.John Sunderland/The Denver Post via Getty Images Author David Sudnow and a woman play a Pac-Man game at a restaurant in Berkeley, California. Circa 1982.Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS/VCG via Getty Images A girl playing a pinball machine. Circa 1970s. u/MrEnigma999/reddit A 17-year-old boy named Brian Allen listens to his Walkman while playing a Pac-Man game at the Pier 39 arcade in San Francisco. 1982. Steve Ringman/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images In the 1980s, the local arcade was one of the most popular hangout spots for kids.kennethfrazerjones/Instagram Inside a Hollywood arcade in 1982. Bettmann/Getty Images A man plays a game in the arcade tent at the US Festival in Devore, California in 1982. The festival, which attracted 185,000 people, was a celebration of cutting-edge technology that changes the way we communicate through art, business, and music. Kashi/Liaison/Getty Images Kids playing Space Invaders in the 1980s. u/AxlCobainVedder/reddit Young girls playing Pac-Man at a video arcade in Times Square in New York City. 1982. Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images A Marine spends some of his spare time playing a video game on a naval ship in 1982.Picryl A girl plays a Pac-Man game at a video arcade in Times Square in New York City. 1982. Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images Kids in an arcade in the 1980s.Pinterest Children play video games behind Nolan Bushnell, the businessman behind Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre chain. 1985. Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images An example of that epic vintage arcade carpeting. Back to the Arcade/Facebook Teens play a Simpsons pinball game. pincityzurich/Instagram Young people play pinball in a café in Paris. 1951.Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Two small boys playing the Street Smart video game at an arcade. Circa 1990. James Keyser/Getty Images A member of the Long Beach chapter of the Mongols Motorcycle Club and his girlfriend play pinball at a bar in San Pedro, California. January 1991.Michael Montfort/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
31 Images That Capture The Height Of Arcade Culture Of The ’70s And ’80s View GalleryLooking back in time, it's incredible how much gaming has evolved since the 1970s and 1980s. It's nearly impossible to believe that arcades once thrived with simple games like Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong.
But some may argue that simpler times were better times.
In some respects, this era was truly the golden age of gaming in the United States. This was especially true for pinball, as the game's controversial past had finally turned into a reluctant validity by the mid-1970s. Before then, pinball was actually outlawed in some major American cities.
For decades, authorities and educators had been concerned that pinball was corrupting the morals of American youths. While the older population's moral panic would soon transfer to video games, that certainly didn't stop kids, teens, and even some adults from enjoying these pastimes at arcades. And before long, a pop-culture obsession with arcades was born.
Inside The Surprisingly Sordid History Of Pinball
FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesMen playing pinball in an American arcade. Circa 1935.
Inspired by sports like bocce, lawn bowling, and billiards, Western Europeans created one of the first versions of pinball between 1750 and 1770. This game, dubbed "Japanese billiards," used metal "pins" instead of wooden ones, and a coiled spring with a plunger rather than a cue. A similar mechanism is still used in modern pinball machines today, according to The Beacon.
Pinball arguably came of age a couple of centuries later during the Great Depression, especially in the United States. But as soon as coin-operated machines debuted in 1931, officials branded them a menace to society. They likened their use for entertainment in businesses to gambling.
And in a way, pinball was connected to gambling at first. Before the introduction of flippers in 1947, pinball was largely a game of chance, not skill. Some players gambled on pinball games, and some business operators handed out prizes to the winners. Because of this, several U.S. cities like Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and New Orleans banned pinball entirely.
In New York City alone, police confiscated and destroyed over 2,000 pinball machines in the early 1940s, with Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia leading the charge. Like many authorities of the era, LaGuardia feared the game had moral and criminal consequences like other forms of gambling often did.
Meanwhile, churches across America also decried pinball, preaching that the games caused juvenile delinquency. Many religious leaders believed that children's morals were being corrupted by the game.
Pinball's bad reputation continued in the country for decades. However, by the mid-1970s, things were looking up. In 1974, the California Supreme Court ended its prohibition of pinball. A couple of years later, the city council in New York City saw a compelling demonstration by pinball star Roger Sharpe, who showed authorities how pinball had become a game of skill.
Soon, the pinball ban in New York City was lifted, and other cities across America followed suit. Others stopped enforcing their bans. But it didn't take long before there was another "threat" on the horizon: video games.
The Rise Of Video Games In American Arcades
losttulsa/FlickrShowBiz Pizza was a family entertainment center that combined a pizza restaurant with an arcade in the 1980s.
Though pinball remained a common sight in arcades across America, video games had largely stolen the spotlight by the 1980s. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the older population soon expressed concerns about these new machines.
Many politicians, educators, and even medical experts worried about the potential negative effects of playing video games, from physical ailments to violent urges to flat-out addiction.
But in reality, much of it had to do with regulating the behavior of America's youths, whose perpetual presence at local malls annoyed many adults.
Despite the moral panic, countless kids, teenagers, and even some adults flocked to video game arcades for fun. Whether they were in a standalone building, in the mall, or inside family entertainment centers like Chuck E. Cheese or ShowBiz Pizza, a trip to the arcade was truly a phenomenon.
On the flip side, some social scientists of the time saw the potential benefits of video games. Interacting with this cutting-edge technology, they thought, could help the younger generation ease into the greater electronic shift that was already occurring in America — from the factory to the office. It was a form of early training, the optimistic among them promised.
Data today shows that video games don't cause aggressive behavior or harm us psychologically. Sure, there may be some eye strain or the occasional stiff wrist, but in the big picture, the games probably helped foster technological education and made kids more creative to boot.
While many arcades have closed in recent years, especially with the ever-rising popularity of home video game consoles, it's always fascinating to take a look back at vintage arcade photos to see how far technology has come since then. And of course, a little nostalgia never hurts.
After looking through these retro arcade photos, discover more vintage images from the 1980s. Then, check out the Internet K-Hole, a revealing look at what life was really like in the 1970s and 1980s.
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